T H E
W I L D ,
W I L D
W E S T
The Early Days of Oklahoma City Maybe you have been to Oklahoma City several times competing at the Morgan Grand National & World Championship. Maybe you are going for your first time this year. But do you know about Oklahoma City’s very unconventional start?
M
By Nancy Norton, Executive Editor
any have heard of the Native American relocation in the 1820s; the most infamous example is the Cherokee “Trail of Tears” account. Part of the land they received was within the “Unassigned Lands” that began to be settled without
you have to wait at the border of the “Unassigned Lands” along with all the other would-be settlers for the signal at noon. Some settlers known as “Sooners” sneak through early to stake the best claims. Dogs are barking, babies are crying, and gunshots are fired into the sky. For some families this is a new beginning, for others a last hope. Then a cannon is shot to proclaim the start of the 1889 Land Run. All is madness and chaos as thousands cross the borders: wagTinted lithograph of Oklahoma City, circa 1890. Published by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler. ons bounce permission by pioneers know as across the prairie, horses and rid“Boomers” in the late 1800s. ers race for the front, and those on Stay with me here. foot hightail it as best they can in After the Civil War, westward the hope of staking a good claim. expansion was certain. Railroads By nightfall there is a tent city of spread into the Indian Territory, over 10,000 people where Oklahoand the Federal Government was ma City lives on today. pressured to open some of the land This tent city was incorporated set aside for the American Indians just a year later as Oklahoma City. to eager settlers. The outcome was There were other land runs into the Land Runs. the territories, but nothing ever Imagine this: it is April 22, 1889, reached the size of the Land Run and your family is determined to of 1889. The city doubled in size get in on the land give-a-way by within ten years, and despite the the federal government. But first, lawlessness of the early settlement, 8
H O RSEANDACADEM Y. CO M
l
OC TOBER 2 0 1 2
it came to be known as a nice town for raising a family. Keep in mind: people were shot at and killed over claims. That’s because picking a good claim was serious business. If you were going to run a hotel, you needed a claim in the heart of the city. If you were going to ship cattle, you would want to be near the railroad. If you wanted to run a ranch, you would need a claim with good access to water. Your family’s future would depend on whether the claim you picked was a good one for your trade. And the Homestead Act said if you stayed on your claim and improved it, then after five years it was yours—free and clear of any other claim. It starts to make sense why those early settlers went tearing across the prairie when that cannon was fired. It’s easy to tune out when you are in history class, but the next time you hear the term Land Run, stop and think what it meant to be part of that intense competition for land. There were a lot of people killed trying to stake and later defend their claims. Native Americans lost a piece of their land grant in the process. And while the fortunes of many settlers were made, the fortunes of others were lost forever. See, that wasn’t bad, was it? n
